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Introduction to Linux - A Hands on Guide

This guide was created as an overview of the Linux Operating System, geared toward new users as an exploration tour and getting started guide, with exercises at the end of each chapter.
For more advanced trainees it can be a desktop reference, and a collection of the base knowledge needed to proceed with system and network administration. This book contains many real life examples derived from the author's experience as a Linux system and network administrator, trainer and consultant. They hope these examples will help you to get a better understanding of the Linux system and that you feel encouraged to try out things on your own.

SUSE Linux 10.0 includes a comprehensive selection of applications to facilitate a wide variety of computing tasks (office suite, e-mail, Internet, picture processing, multimedia and more), plus a subset of packages for advanced users, including key networking and development packages such as Samba, Apache Web server, KDevelop, Mono and more. SUSE Linux is available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions and provides more than 4,000 of the latest open source software packages.

SUSE 10.0 can be purchased from the Novell website or downloaded freely from opensuse.org. The difference is that opensuse.org does not include all the packages and support that the retail SUSE 10.0 has. The extra packages and applications can, however, be downloaded and added to OpenSuse.

Installation is very simple as it is done graphically. It can easily be dual booted with Windows XP and shared with other Linux distributions. During the installation, you can install/remove packages, configure hardware, and configure SUSE. You can always add/remove/edit these changes later in SUSE using the YAST (Yet Another System Tool) appplication. Think of it as the "control panel", like in Windows.

You get the option of choosing the two most used desktop environments: KDE and GNOME. There are some others but I did not bother checking them out.

Hardware detection is also very simple and mindless. SUSE detected all my hardware correctly on my Desktop and my Dell Inspiron 600m laptop.

SUSE also has an automatic system/application update using YOU (YAST Online Update). This insures that your SUSE system and applications are up to date in terms of patches and security. A little colored ball sits in your taskbar that changes colors to notify you of any updates you need. YOU is your one stop place to check for updates.

Overall I am impressed with the easibility and use of SUSE 10.0. I highly recommend this distribution for all levels of Linux users, especially users new to Linux.

I have been using SuSE since 9.1 and have been waiting for this release for some time. The promise of a much faster SuSE was very appealing as SuSE, to use an old saying, is made for comfort, not for speed.

Good news: The wireless bug that prevented WEP from working when configured with YaST is gone. The netapplet actually works and is able to switch between wireless configurations correctly. Yay. The speed promises have not gone unfulfilled either. OpenOffice starts up a LOT faster, and so does Firefox. Now the speed of SuSE is in the same catergory as the much more lightweight Debian systems. Gnome 2.12 looks great and runs very well- far better than 2.10, which never worked quite right on 9.3 for me (but XFCE and KDE were A-OK.) Suspend-to-disk is extremely fast- it takes me maybe 15 seconds as opposed to a minute or so with 9.1-9.3.

Bad news: My computer, which is an older P4-M Gateway, caused a few ACPI hiccups. The SpeedStep function that scales CPU speed between 2.2 and 1.2 GHz does not work. Neither fo performance profiles. And the funny thing is that they worked in 9.1-9.3 and also all the other distributions I have tried. However, using cpuspeed to use dynamic scaling and daemonizing it works fine. Due to the Beagle search program and daemon (they work well!), the RAM usage is pretty stiff. You should have >= 512MB in your box for best results. I have a gig and it runs pretty well indeed.

Up to date; easy to get, install, and use; great for newbies and gurus.

Cons:

Large install size

SuSE is the easiest to use and install flavor of linux I have tried, and I have been very happy with it. It has great support and availability, a commercial backer helps. It also installs quickly, with a massive array of software available on the 5 CD version, the DVD has even more. Walkthroughs and support manuals are very detailed and easy to browse through and read.
It takes a learning curve to get get configured, as with all distros, but with the YAST manager designed by Novell, most things are configured and installed more easily than in other distros. The installer is robust and powerful, but isn't neccessary if you want to do things yourself.
In addition to the ease of setup and use, it still has all the massive configurabilty of linux for experienced users wishing to compile everything on their own, and manually configure everything the same way.
Hardware support is also very good. As soon as you figure out which tool it is you need to use, and the settings that are right for your device, everything just clicks. Full flash drive support, works with my rio, etc. It doesn't allow use of all the extra buttons on my MS Digital Pro keyboard...but they way I understand it, no distro does.
Like all the other big boys, the free version cannot come with licensed software, so mp3 and a few other features don't work straight out of the box. That said, it is very easy to add this support.
It has a massive library of oftware from games to managers, OpenOffice, programming tools, and utilities, so there is very little more you need you can't get straight from the SuSE repositories. Those you can't, are still easy to find installable RPMs if you don't want to compile binary and source yourself.
KDE is the standard Desktop Enviroment one uses with SuSE, but it supports gnome as well, and either way, you can configure every single visual element to personalize it and make the build just right for exactly what you are doing.
In general, for beginners like myself, there is still a learning curve, and getting used to it from Windows or Mac will take some time, but it isn't as bad as with many other distros.
But as someone who has used linux in school and at work, it has all the features I was used to and wanted, plus many more.

Installation: upgrade from 10 alpha failed, . So I had to do full install.

Full install went thru without a problem, took no more time than other distros .. I think about 40 minutes total. It didn't mess up the MBR this time (alpha did).

Running 10.0 is reasonably smooth, I had no major issues except multimedia .. and on the open source (free download) version it's an issue, folks you aren't going to get it work "easily". I had gotten it to work on my 10.0 alpha .. but update messed it all up (I forgot to lock the things in YaST) . In released 10.0 I coudln't get the video to work no matter what I did. and I did .. and I did .

there are a lot of pointers on the web to do this and that .. and most of these things are hafl baked.
First the mirrors to use to download new packages are all in germay and it took me 3+ hours to download 180 MB (cable modem .. generally pretty good)..
And after doing all the "right" incantations .. the video still won't work !!!

So I said hell with it and let's go to Debian.

There are other minor issues iwth it, I really don't like Yast, it's slow and boring .. everytime it you invoke it .. it goes to updates the packages and if you are going to germany to get them .. it becomes a drag..

A lot of good packages are missing from regular DVD so you have another 1/2 hour of downloaiding and installing to do.

Another minor gripe is regarding fonts .. they are lacking, but that's a problem with all distros. Web site's don't look right all the time. Steal your windows font s .. you have paid for thiem !!

Screens are pretty though .. and the system works flawlessly. I gave it a 6 because instead on NOT having the mp3/video suppport in the package, the Suse folks have crippled it, by having bastardized packages that you have to uninstall and then install the "good one" .. and they don't tell you "all" the ones they have messed up .. so you have to rely on these suse-gurus for this information, most of them aren't much of a guru This is a pretty bad situation.
Real Player should be banned from this planet; it's brain dead, evil and pathetic. Suse should have stayed with the open source tool.

If you don't care about multimedia and don't want to pay, Suse is the best !!

If you want multimedia .. try others .

suse 10.0 peformance is better than 9.x .. without a doubt.
some of the gui things are almost 1.5x to 2x faster on the same hardware.

It is easy to use. apart from when you are trying to compile something or do somthing with the terminal, then you have to know what you are doing:(. um... USB is quite slow accually... um...it comes with lots of really good programs, like all the multimedia support, and i like how they are not afraid to put in third party products (like kopete) to make it even better. but i guess we are all united in the face of the greatest enemey- m$. I LOVE KDE and GNOME is crap. For me (a home user) to make Linux appeal to more people (i speak for all the home users when i say this) then, more support should be put in for games and other things (e.g. make the WMV videos work, im a n00b and i don't know how to install friggin' w32 codecs!). WINDOWS ONLY APPEALS TO OTHER PEOPLE BECUASE OF THE PROGRAMS AVAILABLE TO THAT SYSTEM.

well, thats my say. oh, and when i upgraded 9.3 to 10.0 i lost all sound support (minus 1 mark).

Very fast to install, very comprehensive packages, hardware recognition second-to-none!!!

Cons:

need to compile and install lame and xine to get MP3s and MPEGs playing, and SpeedtouchConf script does not work with 2.6.13 Kernel

Omigod.

I have been waiting a long time for this Distro. After buying Pro 8.0 and 9.1 and installing on an older PC, when I took delivery of my brand new HP t760 (UK version) I was all set to go pure-Linux. Unfortunately, after a years' worth of unsuccsessful Googling and PC crhashes and numerous re-installs of the Windows Recovery cd, I gave up.....

Until now. I bought a 5CD set of the OSS version of 10.0 from http://www.uselinux.co.uk (terrific, check them out), sat down with prints of all my hardware, installed in Text Mode and..... it went unbelievably smoothly!!!

10.0 OSS is fast to install, fast to boot (only minor niggle is having to choose between KDE and Gnome as GUI's rather than both.

A lot of packages are included, incl. AMAROK and Kaffeine, but beware, these are 'queered' and will not run MP3 out of the box. You need to go to a RPM repository like RPM PBone and get:

lame
xine-libs

then install via YAST, then your flying. One niggel is that I cannot get my CDs to play, Iwould launch KScd and it would look like a CD is playing, but no sounds (I cannot yet find where an audio cable would go on my Mobo, despite having a schematic). However, now when I put a CD in Kscd doesn;t do anything. Still not too bothered as I have most of my CDs on MP3 on a USB HDD anyway.

AmaroK is simply one of the most beatifully designed multimedia players I have ever used, fast reliable and crystal repro of MP3s.

Likewise Kaffeine's latest incarnation is a tremendous step forward. KDE 3.4 is likewise designed to the minutest detail, and eclipses XP once and for all (and 3.5 is imminent!! Squeak! control yourself 'Thug)

the only downer, and it is a HUGE one is the inability to get my Speedtouch 330 (silver Rev 4) USB modem working.

Having becoem a bit of a master at installign the SpeedtouchConf script n Suse's 8.0 & 9.1 Pro, I thought it would be a piece of pee-pee to do this time. No dice, I get the following message

"not redy to install this software at this time - code 1"

No amount of tweaking works, and spent 4 hours trying to do a workaround using a tutorial that only served to goose my USB keyboard and mouse. But thankfully I repaired using the 10.0 CD1.

Overall, Suse and Novell are taking great strides in developing Linux as a serious contender for Desktops and Laptops, I just hope they can be more bullish with new released (i.e. boast about some of the factory-delivered PCs that Linux works on)

I know a lot of people tweka and twiddle inside their boxes, but my experience with my HP t760, whic hhas no mods whatsoever, was a joyous experience.

I have so wanted to like and use Linux for the past 3 years or so that I am delighted I now have it working, just a shame about the modem....

to me, this is the best distro ever. It is clean, fast, well integrated, reliable and good looking.

Hardware support was no disappointment. Everything works, with nice touches like the HP toolbox thrown in, meaning I can now see the ink level of my printer. My ralink rt2500 based wifi card is fully supported and worked with no fiddling.

Post install configuration
I am a bit disappointed with yast. Although it's clean and works rather well, it failed completely and utterly to configure samba shares. After much struggling, it turns out that the kde control center is the best bet to get it going with a minimum of fuss.
Package install is OK but for a distro product, they have to go down the same root as ubuntu and show apps rather than go down to individual library packages. And dependencies checking is a bit confusing. And the package availability is not great. But a nice touch is that clicking on a rpm in a directory in konkeror offers the option to install with Yast, without dropping to the command line.

Fonts rendering is excellent and nvidia driver installation was done during the install.

Looks are great and menus well organised. Openoffice is very well implemented and starts quickly (8 secs on a 5 year old machine).

It's the first distro I try that comes with nice details like motherboard and cpu sensors modules in the kernel.

Mainstream multimedia is hardly supported at first boot and a little hunt for packages is required to play divx, mp3 and other dvds. Does the commercial distro come with support for that ? No idea.

Conclusion ? I keep it. It's the closest thing I know to what you get with MacOSX (multimedia aside).

Yast is wonderful, usually. Easy dual-boot, ability to use KDE and GNOME simultaneously, incredible compatibility with software, and most hardware, such as Wine. Wide selection of software out-of-the-box

Cons:

Sometimes crashes at logon. Can prove to be unstable with some of their software, such as Beagle.

Truly, truly an excellent linux distribution. Out of the box it installs, partitions and is ready to go in a matter of minutes. It is blazing fast, compared to some other distributions. And, though many disgaree, I think that Yast is simply beautiful. Yast, is the package and installation manager of SuSE which is a very easy way to search for packages, install packages and do anything else that has to do with the word "package" except of course, FedEx'ing, but that will be avalible on version 11. It has a wide variety of software avalible out of the box. Such as many games, Wine, Gimp, OOo, basically everything you need to get a Linux PC on the go. A must-have for a linux user. And a get it or-be-sorry for the newbie. It could do with some work on Modem compatibility, and maybe offer more personalization out-of-the box <Though it is still more than windows> All-in-all, I gave it a 9, because its beautiful, but not flawless. Good luck to all of those who try it.

Would you recommend the product? no | Price you paid?: D/L | Rating: 4

Pros:

Nice interface easy to understand

Cons:

Could not find my wireless card

Nice setup and easy to install but did take some time for 5 cd's. Used a netgear 511 card and it could not load it and also would not load my dell c600 laptop fixed network adapter.. From what I read everyone using the netgear 511 cards were SOL.. I stopped using it since I didnt want to continue with something that didnt support this.

Needs all CDs to install completely; software repository size is small compared to distros like Debian or Gentoo

I installed SUSE Linux 10 a few days ago and I must say that I was quite impressed with this distro on the whole. It is one polished, professional Linux distribution with a smooth, painless installation procedure that is very beginner-friendly while at the same time being easily accessible to the expert user who wants to customize the whole process. I for example, needed to customize the partitions manually and also choose not to install a boot loader and it was quite easy to achieve this with the ďexpertĒ mode tools during the setup. At the same time, somebody who has a basic system can easily breeze through the installation with the default partitioning scheme. It all depends on the level of expertise and how much control you want over the process. For instance, if you have another Linux installed on your system, I suggest a custom partitioning scheme.

The installation of SUSE is basically a two-step process. First it installs the base system using only the first CD and then you reboot. Once you do and continue the installation by booting into the newly installed system, you get to configure your hardware, locale and system parameters and settings. Once this is done, you get a fully working Linux system. On my system at least, hardware detection was fully automated and I didnít get a single prompt for any settings. Of course, experts can choose to configure their hardware manually as well. Itís painless, fast and easy. The downside of SUSE installation is that you need all 5 CDs even for a basic installation because the packages are spread across the CDs and you never know which essential package is on which CD unless you really dig deep to investigate individual package files. This was a definite downside because I was forced to download all 5 CDs before I could install SUSE. Of course, if you choose to buy a boxed set from Novell, you could avoid this hassle.

YaST is the real strength of SUSE, though. Itís a fully integrated system configuration tool that does pretty much everything you might need from hardware, software, network configuration, server setup and other system administration. However though itís GUI, you will need to learn it and due to the sheer number of modules, you will need some time to really learn how to use it. On the other hand, a basic desktop user wonít really need to do much system administration except software management.

While on the subject of package management, I want to talk a little more on this from the perspective of a Debian user. SUSE uses the RPM system and has a wide variety of packages available, but not surprisingly it comes nowhere close to matching the size of the Debian software repository, which has more than 15,000 official packages. Though this is understandable, I did find it irksome to note that there are no SUSE packages for gFTP and audacity, for instance. As a Debian user who is spoilt on the huge official software repository (not to mention those found on apt-get.org), I found this limitation to be a turn off. On the other hand, the default SUSE package repository is large enough for typical users who may not need all the stuff that I generally use. By the way, there might be SUSE repositories online which have unofficial SUSE packages of software not found in the CDs, but I must admit that I havenít really investigated this aspect yet.

One other minor issue is that the default desktop fonts are a bit odd but that can be easily corrected by installing the Microsoft core TrueType fonts as a patch in the YaST online update module and customizing your fonts.

My impressions? SUSE is very much a desktop oriented distro, but not necessarily limited to the desktop user. Itís polished and professional and looks like a complete product. While YaST is excellent overall, the software management part of it is not nearly as convenient or polished as apt-get on Debian. The best part of SUSE 10 is probably that itís hardware detection is great, itís installation is smooth and painless and requires minimum manual intervention by default. That might really encourage users new to Linux to try it out. But if you are an experienced Linux user, particularly with distros like Debian or Slackware and you are used to being in control of your whole system, you might find the limitations of SUSE irksome.

If you would like to say HOLLA to Linux, this is the distro you should start with. This is the most usable Linux distro, as claimed by SUSE, and reassured by me (someone who is not employed by SUSE). It has a polished, shiny, and attractive interface. Installation is painless.

YaST (Yet another Setup Tool) is a great tool for configuring your settings. You can add and remove packages with ease with this tool without running into dependency problems.

If you would be using GUI most of the time, this distro will make you feel like playing Frisbee with your Fedora CDs/DVDs!

SUSE Linux 10.0 comes in 3 flavors: OSS (open source software), Eval (evaluation), and Retail. OSS and Eval are free. OSS only contains open-source software, so no Adobe Reader, or RealPLayer, or Macromedia Flash plugin comes bundled. Of course, you can download and install them later. Eval comes with OSS, as well as closed-source software. Eval is NOT time limited, no nag-screens either. Reatils contains OSS+Eval+other software not included in Eval+official support from SUSE. Both OSS and Eval can be downloaded freely from www.opensuse.org

Having tried past SuSE versions, I am pleasantly surprised to see that 64 bit 10.0 version has improved greatly. The installation properly detected and configured all of my hardware and the installation is simple enough for even a complete Linux newbie to work through with no problem.

It runs fairly quickly and is a very "complete" feeling distro with a lot of polish. The GUI configuration and update tools will make system maintenance a breeze for new Linux users and experienced alike.

In the past YAST tended to create as many configuration problems as it solved, but SuSE seems to have improved upon this greatly.

Installing additional applications is quite easy using YAST and I ran into very few dependency problems that couldn't be quickly solved.

All in all I'd say that Novell has taken SuSE in the right direction and would highly recommend SuSE 10.0 for new and experienced users alike.

I've been a devoted user of SuSE since version 9. I know that's not very long in the lifetime of a distro but I've tried many other flavors of linux and I keep coming back to SuSE.

Version 10 is polished and stable.

The install was a breeze. The only differences I could see during the install from any other version is the prompts to allow detection of various types of hardware is gone and the installer automatically detects what it needs to. Also, I did not have an option to choose my particular grapics card and change it's configuration during install, all I could change was the display resolution. And the display and sound configuration are the very last aspects of the install.

I wont go into all of the things that make me happy about this distro, because I'd be typing forever. I will however mention the one thing that might make me abandon this version in anticipation of another.

I recently bought an ATI x850xt AGP 8x card and I cannot get 3D acceleration to work. I've spent quite a few hours using the instructions from both ATI's website and SuSE's website. However, it seems that when ATI and SuSE are saying that the proprietary ATI drivers support the x850xt, they are referring to the PCI-E version of the card, not the AGP. So, it is pretty depressing that the only game I can run using cedega is Starcraft, and it is choppy at that. I really wish that the linux "powers that be" could get this figured out and have better 3D acceleration support for the latest and greatest cards.

Also, it was pretty goofy that the "PCM" volume was turned all of the way down by default. Since I heard the nice little KDE startup sound when I booted up, this gave me a bit of a headache as I just assumed that this version lacked proper MP3 support. It turned out that this was not the case and I just needed to turn the sound up. This is the first distro (other than Mandrake) that has required any tweaking for my Audigy2 ZS.

SuSE is the only distro that will ever make it's way onto my machine. That is unless a distro comes along and says, "We natively support all hardware and software designed for WindowsXP out of the box.... LOL", or I can install F.E.A.R. and get 60FPS without cedega.

If you are considering changing distros or picking up linux as a desktop/server do yourself a favor and JUST DO IT. SuSE Rocks, despite it's few shortcomings.

I have been using SuSe Linux since version 6.4 and I applaud the fine job they have done with 10. Sadly my applause are muted by the very disappointing performance of the 64 bit distro.

I found the 64 bit distro to be a poor performer in every way and IMHO should be limited to experimentation. As for the 32 bit distro, it is no doubt their finest effort to date with one minor exception.

I have not yet discovered the reason (beyond poor tuning or bad drivers), but the system gets i/o bound when transferring large files (>1gb) and you can lose all keyboard control for long periods (>2 minutes). Oddly, on the machine that was upgraded from 9.2, this is does not happen. Minus one point. Also, it is not particularly friendly when it comes to sharing USB hardware with VMWare clients. For this, I deduct an extra point.

Overall, hardware recognition and stability are both excellent. The Firefox download manager finally works 100%, Amarok is GREATLY improved (now better than XMMS - especially the real-time lyrics) and overall, the Linux community finally has a product that can supplant the the Redmond product on the desktop.

User-friendly, large selection of software during install, generally works well

Cons:

Somewhat proprietary update system (YOU) (but you can also use apt-get if you want); not much multimedia support included

SuSE is a distribution that is very user-friendly and works very well overall.

One thing that makes SuSE stand out for me is YaST (Yet Another System Tool), which is a very user-friendly graphical control center, much like the control panel in Windows, letting you configure various aspects of the system from one central place.

I'm also impressed with how smoothly the system works. In some distros I've used, I'd have trouble installing software because some library wasn't included in the distro, and some problems I've had with other distros aren't even consistent between installations. But I haven't had any problems getting software to work in SuSE; it all works well. SuSE also has a relatively polished, professional look - something that isn't really required, but it does say that they put a lot of effort into it.

Another nice touch that SuSE's installer has, that I haven't seen in another Linux distro, is that you can save your package list onto a disk so that if you have to re-install SuSE, you can load your package list and don't have to spend time choosing which packages you want to install. This saves time, since SuSE comes with a fairly large number of packages to choose from.

As for the cons, SuSE doesn't include much support for multimedia codecs out of the box (such as MP3, divx, etc.). But you can install support for these things afterward. Also, SuSE uses YOU (an online update service) for its updates, which is somewhat proprietary. However, you can install other installer programs such as apt-get. I'd recommend installing and using apt-get - I've been using it to install/upgrade packages on my SuSE boxes, and it works very well.

SuSE used to be my favorite distribution around version 6.1. I haven't used it in a while until recently because they started only offering an evaluation version for download. I've used RedHat, Fedora, and Gentoo since then. But since downloading and installing SuSE 10.0 just a week ago, I've been sold on SuSE again for how well it works, its large selection of packages, and ease of use.

I really like this distribution over others I have tried. I have been using Linux for about a year now. I have never liked upgrading my operating systems until I found Suse. Suse makes upgrading really easy and fairly harmless. Of course, it is still recommended to backup everything before you upgrade.

Yes, I searched the web up to smoking lines for acceptable multimedia pack for OSS Linux 10.0. Yesterday I found a great site with precompiled packages not only for multimedia, not only for OSS 10.0, not only for 32 bit systems!

Visit http://packman.links2linux.org/ and you will not have any questions about wy this does not run or that did'nt compile!

I am using SuSE 10.0.0 since litle over a week on two machines, at the office (Compaq Crap Deskpro) and at home (home made box). Even on the Compaq (600 MHz, 128 MB RAM) It runs great, fast and stable. At home it outright flies (Athlon XP 1.800+, 786 MB RAM). All hardware was detected except (on both machines!) the internal modem (Compaq: On-board, home: Connexant). But the ethernet worked right out of the box, and ADSL modem config was easy even for a newbie like me (home, in office not required since always-on).

SuSE doesn't play just about anything to do with "video" because of "legal restrictions", yet downloading a better (?) version of Xine and a bunch of codecs "fixed" that. Also i can't get it to auto-mount any of my USB storage devices at home (external HDD, 4-in-1 card reader with MMC or Memory Stick) while at the office it works, and at home it works as "Root". This is a setup-thing and i am sure at some stage i'll get it working, not SuSE's fault really.

I recommend SuSE for newbies too because installation is dead easy and fast too - about 1 hour on the office machine and little over 25 minutes at home. (Windows XP >1 1/2 hours, 45 minutes)

I am a new user of Linux, bought the 32bit 5xcd set from a mag. Installation was easy, if you can read you can do it. Installed alongside Windows XP no bother and made an attractive boot loader. I also installed it on another PC with 2 hard drives and 4 operating systems 2x winxp Suse and Mandriva 2005 only tweak I had to do was change both boot loaders to match (Grub or Lilo)forum help did this no problem. Found a web page called the "Jem Report" this showed me how to put in mirrors and I downloaded all the latest stuff like Adobe Accrobat and Opera, Java,Firefox etc, although theses are on the CDs.
It detected all hardware no bother only install I had manualy was the USB modem from Tiscali, downloaded a few files and followed the steps and that was it. I have XP on the same drive and Suse allows me to access it and move files to Suse (doesn't work other way round, windows pretends Linux isnt there) I can highly recomend this o/s what have you got to loose? its free or very cheap to buy and looks like its here to stay. Also I must mention Yast, it has taken care of the installation side of things smoothly. Linux does do some things slightly different from XP ( not better or worse just different) but no great changes for desktop users like me, I like the one click to get in and out of programs and the start menu is catagorised so all your apps are where they should be, not all over the shop like Windows. I hope this was convincing enough for you to give it a whirl? Adrian

I have tried Fedora Core 3 and 4, Ubuntu 5.04 and now SuSE 10. Fedora Core had roughly the same polished look to it but let me tell you it was a pain to run. You had to go all over the OS to configure stuff. This is why I really like YAST. Basically one place to go to configure stuff.

Also tried Ubuntu. Now Ubuntu IS faster than SuSE. I can say that because I have installed both on the same computer (albeit not together). That is, each distro has had the whole computer to itself. That said, Ubuntu is snappier. However, Ubuntu had its own problems. Could never get it to print..at all...not even locally. Also had to mess around with /etc/fstab to get my USB flashdrive to be recognized. AND (like SuSE) had to google extensively to download and then compile (make anyone?) the OS to be able to watch movies. While gratifying to be able to accomplish, I got a lot of "gee, in Windows all I had to do was slap in the DVD and it worked". Sigh. Ubuntu also looks ugly. I know that should be the least of anyone's concerns but it really does. I did LOVE apt and synaptic package manager, however. Man, that worked soooo well!! Incredibly easy to use.

The MAJOR complaint I have with ALL the distros is SAMBA. What a pain in the butt, that is. You know, if LINUX is to make headway in the Windows universe, it must be EASY (read INCREDIBLY EASY) to be able to access a LINUX box from a Windows client. Alternatively, it should be EASY to access resouces from a LINUX box from a Windows client. I have had limited success with the different distros. Ubuntu was good (not great) at accessing files from Windows servers (aka, network shares). But it couldn't print to a network (or any other) printer to save its life. Something broke somewhere, obviously. Network printing (windows network) for Fedora was a snap to setup and it always worked. Kudos for Red Hat. However, try getting the box to access Windows shares or vice-versa. No go, Joe. SuSE was a bit tougher to setup for network printing but I finally accomplished it. However, still can't access Windows shares. Can see them, just can't open them (I am the administrator and I have every right known to man..).

The point here is that this is a REAL IMPORTANT NEED to be addressed. I WANT Linux to be implemented where I work but it has to be a viable network citizen. It would be great to phase it in, for example.

Lastly, I finally got to see DVDs (movies, that is) by googling and finding a valuable resouce called The JEM Report. Not only did I find the software I need to add, it told me how to configure it. Talk about a maze-like configuration process...ugh. Also, the Jem Report alerted me to some online software repository sources to add (in YAST). Naturally, these sources should be implemented from the start, but hey...what would be the fun in that?? (sigh).

Last point. There is a known problem with mounting DVD drives. I found the workaround via the NOVELL website. Novell techs have confirmed that it is a problem with the distro and -- hopefully -- 10.1 will fix it. Anyway, after configuring (sorry, the fix is on my home computer and I am at work..), the directory file, I have to go to YAST, click on Hardware, click on CD ROM, do the "apply' function to get the hardware setting correct, stick in the DVD, then reboot. The DVD will then be mounted and I can use Totem to see the movie. THAT is the workaround. UGH. Obviously needs to be fixed.

Over last year, I have tried serval flavors of linux on several different machines, some with weird hardware, and in the end I always came to Suse. I tried to go hardcore with Slackware, wasted just too much time on the OS when I could do some real work, tried Mandriva, the setup program couldn't finish loading on one of my machine. And a couple of others, nothing came close to SUSE. I do notice that SUSE uses a lot of memory in comparison to other distributions, but all my machines have at least 512MB, so I don't care about that.

My upgrade from SUSE 9.2 to 9.3 was a disaster, I ended up reinstalling everything, but upgrading from 9.3 to 10.0 was so smooth. The system has been through a couple of blackouts, no problem there. It only crashed on me once when I tried to run a program that ate up more than 2 GB memory.

I got it for free from open suse.
I tried Mandrake and Ubuntu. I like Suse 10.0 better. It is easy to install and is faster than Mandrake, Windows 2000 and suse 9.3 on the same computer. It is more complete than ubuntu and more beautifull. It detected my hardware without any problem. Except ... the scanner (hp 5370c). No way to get that running, not even after several hours searching on the net for a solution. For a newbee like me it is an ideal distro, easy and nice. Yast is understandable even for me. I know the die hards among us need the hokus pokus but I think that if linux wants the future it has to be easier (not as easy) as Windows. I also like the software that is included. Kopete is a good alternative for msn, and not so dangerous for the health of your pc (my pc crashed due to a msn-virus)and my son is crazy about it. I like the agenda included. short : Suse is the best for me. But to many things dont work out of the box, like the games and films,and I cannot fix them since I am a newbee, and therefore I still have to use my ... windows 2000 in Dual boot.

I just switched to SuSE from Fedora 4 and the Installation was fast. I loved how it detected my wireless card without having to install anything else. I love YaST, and SuSE is a lot easier to use than other distro's out there.

Easy Installation, Those parts that are provided play together reasonably well

Cons:

open holes in muli-media and mozilla products

Installation was pretty much a breeze. Main issues were making sure it didn't format those partitions where my /home, sources and music were.

Biggest problems to date have been getting Mozilla's Thunderbird and FireFox installed and playing together. Even after their installation Tbird wasn't passing embedded URL's properly to FireFox. Finally learned to go to FireFox and have it make itself the default browser which fixed the problem.

Multi-media is another problem which I'm still resolving. But the lack of information on what they left out regarding the problem is irritating. I've finally found a couple of sites that seem to address the problem and I'll be working it as soon as I've time.

Overall, it is a good distro. Certainly easier to work with than Debian and Fedora. Both of which I've tried. Just an aside but Fedora is close to the bleeding edge as I care to go. Debian may cover more territory than other distro's but it has it's quirks as well. Not to mention that it's package manager drives me totally over the edge.

I have been forced to install something because my laptop with Ubuntu in it was hacked and made unusable.

I tried Slackware, but its just not for laptops,and failed totally.

Suse's installer was the best I ve seen so far, very comforting after my unbootable vanilla slackware attempts.

I don't have too many complaints. Hardware has generally been detected well. My computer can sleep, and it is quite impressive that it shuts down instead of turning itself off when there is no battery.

Like Ubuntu, they don't have Gcc. I find it a bit odd to use the Yast for everything; its fat and does not replace command line tools. But again, new users should have life easy. Synaptic felt much better to install packages. It somehow feels limiting.

Unlike Ubuntu, here, both KDE and Gnome work harmoniously. In Ubuntu, KDE would crash all the time. Although Suse seems to like KDE, Gnome is not badly done. The sounds are integrated well between the desktops. One doesn't have k3b's sound muted while in Gnome.

I had a very hard time with multimedia. The usual trick of getting things from freshrpms failed. I had to get it from some very obscure forum and feed Yast, which was far from intuitive.

Wireless works well. Firmware had to be downloaded from somewhere.

Their fonts are very well thought of. They have large and friendly fonts for this high resolution moniter (1400x1024).

Overall, I think it is one of the best distros around, with Fedora, Mandrake and Ubuntu, notwithstanding multimedai.